Bookish Review: The Magicians

I have mixed feelings about this book. I had read Grossman's previous work and I was not a huge fan. But, this came recommended by friends and got a lot of buzz and good reviews, so I thought I'd give it a short. There are definitely a lot of Narnia and Harry Potter allusions, as perhaps you'd expect. The book is about a teenager who's a bit obsessed with a Narnia-like series of books and then discovers that magic is real, but it's a lot harder than it seems in books. All hunky-dory so far. Grossman's writing of teenagers can be a little cliche, but it's not unbearable. My problem is, as we all know, I like a happy ending, especially with my magical realism/fantasy. There's no happy ending here--no ending, really, since there's a sequel (I'm not sure how many books are planned). The problem is, I didn't love the characters enough, so I probably won't read the others. If you're a Narnia fan who's grown up to hate saccharine endings and like a little darkness in your novels instead, you may enjoy this. Me, I'd rather read Harry Potter.